Misconceptions about Islamic Finance
Hany Abou-El-Fotouh, First Vice President and Group Head of Corporate Governance and Compliance at ABC Bank Egypt has participated as the panelist at the ‘Money Laundering Alert 13th Annual International Conference’ held in Hollywood, Florida, organized by Miami-based Alert Global Media, Inc., the publisher of Money Laundering Alert and moneylaundering.com Premium. More than 1,500 attendees from the United States and 40 countries have signed up to this conference.
In the conference Abou-el-Fotouh has tackled major misconceptions about Islamic finance and banking among other issues.
About the size of Islamic finance Abou-El-Fotouh said “Islamic finance is rapidly growing. It is estimated at USD 700 bn globally and expected to be USD 1.4 trillion. There are more than 300 Islamic financial institutions and Islamic windows operating globally. The major principles of Islamic finance are prohibition of all kind of interest, no financing of sinful and socially irresponsible activities as well and dealings are on contractual basis"
He clarified several common misconceptions about Islamic banking and finance. “The major myth about Islamic banking is that it is about a cluster of hard line religious believers and about religion only. The reality is nearly 60% of Islamic banks’ customers are non-Muslims who mostly believe that Islamic finance is an alternative way of doing business and making money through wealth creation and distribution” Said Abou-El-Fotouh.
He further added "another misconception describes Islamic banks as being regulated only by Sharia (Islamic law). The reality is Islamic banks draw their founding blocks from Sharia and they operate fully under the `law of land’ where they exist"
Source: PR-USA.net
